All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

This does not surprise me one bit. F1 is hot right now, thanks to Drive to Survive and the amount of celebrities that have flocked to the sport. Is it sustainable? We'll see. But I already have more interest in F1 than I've ever had in NASCAR. And I've tried. It just doesn't grab me.

 

It helps that, Martin Brundle gridwalk gaffes aside, the Sky Sports team is the best broadcasting team in sports. F1 is about the only sport where you miss out on a ton of good information if you watch on mute. On top of that, they have great production values, camera angles and access.

 

That NASCAR broadcasts have never figured out using text on screen for in-car communications is the dumbest thing ever. It's always been terrible quality and garbled as hell. I hate it every time they go to it because it should be so easy.

 

Gotta feeling F1 will demand the next U.S. broadcaster has its own announce team. It doesn’t add a ton, especially if it’s done from a studio in Stamford or Bristol or Charlotte.

 

As I much as I long for the Bob Varsha days, I don't think the fan benefits in any tangible way from that. If anything I could see ESPN doing that because I assume Sky doesn't let them have their feed for free. It's weird for an F1 race in the US on US TV to start with over a minute of directions on how to use special features that are only available in the UK.

 

Lord, I hope we don’t get our own announcers.

The last few years Buxton was the only redeemable quality of those Speed/NBC broadcasts. Varsha clearly stopped following the series years before he was done announcing them. Diffey was better but not particularly good. Matchett was the tech expert but hadn’t worked in F1 in 15 years. You only knew Hobbs was awake because he’d yell “blammo” now and then. No thanks.

If the new contract includes American announcers and commercials I can only hope we still have access to F1TV.

 

I knew Miami was a dud race - until the safety car, anyway - when Sky went to Mick's in-car communication which has to be a first.

 

Like others, I found the Miami F1 race meh. Not bad for a first time, and good to see so much interest at the track. That fake marina though...oof.
Never thought I'd say this, but when Danica Patrick did interviews she wasn't too bad. That surprised me. "Wrong Way" Willy T. Ribbs, however, was awful.
Amazing to me how Mercedes could get in the window with Russell on Friday, then be out of it the rest of the weekend with both cars. It's just painful to watch those cars porpoise so bad, gives me a headache.

 

It's very frustrating to watch the porpoising, not just with Mercedes. Good car or bad, you just want to see them getting every bit of performance they can out of what they have. Watching drivers have to slow down well before the braking zone because they're smashing their spines is antithetical to the "pinnacle of motorsport."

Danica makes a lot of sense as a good F1 (or motorsport) reporter. She's always performed well while being interviewed, she understands what it's like to be in the car, and she's got excellent on-camera presence.

The fake marina was really a missed opportunity. They're trying to create a vibe with the "marina," not a real experience, obviously, but painted wood does not create that vibe. I'm guessing they were worried about A) losing the utility of that concrete space 51 weeks a year for a pool that will be used only during the F1 event, and 2) liability if they made an actual pool (that would have had to have been staffed with lifeguards, etc.).

 

I liked the marina. It was ridiculous but that was the point.

The track was far better than I was expecting, but my expectations were low. I liked the long back straight into the tight left hander — drivers botched that corner over and over.

It’s been hilarious seeing the blowback to the race. “There were celebrities and it was geared toward the rich!” Yeah, no shit.

 

Watching the Indy GP and it's very apparent that the "We're glad you didn't burn to death in Bahrain" goodwill Romain Grosjean had is definitely exhausted.